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30 Day Film Challenge Round-Up

In the beginning of May, I started the 30 Day Film Challenge hoping to better my motivation to post frequently, fight writer’s block and showcase a few of my favourites, giving a cross-section of my taste in film.

Conclusions :

– Picking favourite films is super hard. Putting a film over another, especially when their merits lie in completely different things (story – characters – acting – directing – visuality) is extremely difficult to do. When given a genre, it became easier, but the two spots I saved for last (second favourite film, favourite film) had several contenders, and already I feel like I should’ve picked something else.

– Favourite definitely doesn’t equal best. Most of the films I’ve gone through in this challenge are in no way perfect filmmaking. But who needs perfect? When I think about my favourite films, those are the films that made me think or feel on a magnified level rather than go ‘wow that was technically great’. Often an idea or a thought conveyed through the screen, however small it is, is the thing that sticks with you for so much longer than a feeling of seeing a classic, perfectly construed film.

– I dig Spanish. Y Tu Mamá También, Todo Sobre Di Mi Madre, El Orfanato and Amores Perros range from Mexico to Spain expressing that really, this is a language that works extremely well with drama and romance. All in all, out of 30 films 8 were not in English (take that imperialism!).

A Film By Your Favourite Director : Se7en (1995)
A Film By Your Least Favourite Director : Bad Boys (1995)
A Guilty Pleasure : Shoot ‘Em Up (2007)
The Film That No One Expected You To Like : Zombieland (2009)
The Film That Depicts Your Life : Man On Wire (2008)

Well, it was a nice list to follow along, thanks for that. I am a bit disappointed, though, that gems like Trainspotting or American Beauty were not there… but everyone has an opinion. Big thumbs up for not going all out Hollywood here! :-)

Uh-oh, seems like I have to take the torch and make up my own challenge soon. It’ll be interesting.

Trainspotting indeed is a great film, but for me not even Boyle’s best work. There’s no second place in this type of challenge, and the number one would depend on the time of day and week. I keep thinking that if I started this list a few days later it would’ve turned out to be a completely different list.

I think my favorites on your list would be between Blade Runner and Rear Window with Blade Runner winning out. For reference I’ve seen 16 of the films on your list. I’m really surprised you like A Beautiful Mind that much. When I saw it in theaters I knew it was a great film, but I don’t think it’s held up well in my eyes. I’ve only seen Fight Club and Se7en once a piece and thought they were awesome, but I can’t call them favorites yet.

It’s mostly the subject matter that feels personal for me that makes A Beautiful Mind stand out to me, it’s in no way a perfect film but not necessarily at all worth the label ‘doesn’t hold up well’, by all standards it’s still a great film and not tied to any particular era.

There are very good films in this challenge of yours that I have had the pleasure to enjoy. I found your blog through our common friend Craig who is doing, like me, a IMDB TOP 250 challenge. I was quickly impressed with how similar our tastes seem to be (at least at first glance) and by the vast selection of films you have seen and reviewed.
Of course, there are some disagreements here and there, the most important being that I don’t feel as strongly as you do about Fight Club or Blade Runner. I invite you to check out my blog where I have begun to post my reviews on the TOP 250 films of all time, my very first being my take on Blade Runner.
Looking forward to sharing our thoughts on film!

Oh great, top challenges really are that, a challenege; I often feel a need to push myself in order to get some of those classics in my film schedule. I’ll be sure to check your blog out asap! Thanks for reading : – )

I like the layout of your blog Anna, it looks professional. ‘Often an idea or a thought conveyed through the screen, however small it is, is the thing that sticks with you for so much longer than a feeling of seeing a classic, perfectly construed film’. This is exactly how I feel about The King’s Speech and The Social Network. The latter is undoubtedly a technically better film and easier to watch and enjoy as a result, but The King’s Speech’s strength is its message of perseverance through adversity and the subtlety with which it is conveyed. By the by Anna, sorry about the shameless plug but time is a wasting and there is little over a day left until the deadline for the “Morality Bites” blogothon I’m co-hosting. Would love your input. If you’d like to take part just post an answer to the following question on your blog and then send me a link. ‘Does the filmmaker have a moral responsibility?’ Thanks Anna, hope you can take part.

Great job Anna! I was impressed by each of your picks. I think it’s hard to top Se7en, the film from your favorite director. I’m a Fincher fan too and Se7en is one of my favorites. Blade Runner, High Fidelity would also have been my choices. Perhaps I’ll endeavor to partake in this challenge later in the year!

Your two main points– picking favorites is hard, and “favorite” doesn’t mean “best”– inform my philosophy behind just about every best of/top ten list I create. The simple act of delineating what films fit into such endeavors is incredibly tricky, most often because there’s always, always, always competition for each spot– you want to pick X, but Y is just as good, so how do you decide? I try to go for films that I know mean more to me (and I know what films mean more to me based on how much I can write about them– the more I have to say, the more it impacted me), personally.

“Favorite” and “best” are definitely two opposite distinctions, too. Glad to see someone else thinking the same way as me in that regard!